New Material Developed to Remove Radiation and Other Contaminants From Water

This material has been developed by researchers from North Carolina University and is composed of forrest by-products and crustacean shells that have been crushed to a powder. This material is able to extract radioactive iodide, heavy metals and salt from water. Using this material to desalinize water uses no electricity. It is a foam like substance that coated to wood fibers. It is like a sponge that you can immerse in water and it can be used like a tea bag, for small scale use, or like a filter, for large scale use. This is great they need to send this out to all the areas in the world that are having troubles with their drinking water. I'm sure Japan needs some of this stuff bad.
www.spacedaily.com...
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This is really interesting it's too bad no one's replied to this. I think it's fascinating that more and more we're turning to natural methods to clean up some of our worst damage. This reminds me a lot of the microbial mycorrhizal bioremediation being used to clean hydrocarbon spills and fungi being used to remove heavy metals from soil.

Overview of Bioremediation pdf

Role of plants, mycorrhizae and phytochelators in heavy metal contaminated land remediation

reply to post by dug88


Yeah I'm a little bummed no one has replied but that's how it goes around here sometimes. If it is about some stupid hoax video you get 200 replies and when it is about a new way to purify water, who cares? What impresses me the most about this is that it can be used to desalinize water. This is huge for alot of countries that have very limited amounts of drinking water.

The desalinization potential is almost more impressive than the radioactive iodide removal potential. Although I wonder what might happen if a bunch of the material were entered into the ocean. It could be devastating if it began to bind to ocean salts it would create instant freshwater patches.

reply to post by dug88


yes but they are not just throwing it into the water they would be using this material attatched to wood so that it can be used as some type of filter system.

Oh ya I realize that. It was more just a thought it might not even do that, I could just imagine some negative uses or just accidents that could occur with a material that traps salt. I wonder if it could be used in soil or other materials, other than water, with salination problems. The potential with a material like that is pretty astounding when you start thinking about it.

reply to post by dug88


Yeah I supose this technology could be used for soil use but this is used as a filter so I think it may be difficult to develop it to use this way. I mean are you gonna run soil through this filter? It is a wonderful idea I just wonder how they would be able to transfer this technology from water to soil.

It's definitely fin the future although, the article said the substance is a foam so injecting it directly could be a possibility. Although the possibility of desalinating water is probably the most incredible aspect of this material it has implications in everything from providing drinking water to pretty much everyone in the world, to the reclamation of some of the most polluted industrial sites. Its possibilities in ecosystem restoration could be great.

reply to post by dug88


Once you have injected this stuff into the soil I'm just not sure how they would be able to get it out. The researchers could come up with something though. Otherwise yeah it could potentialy use it to cure some sections of land.